Thursday, January 03, 2013

Calgary Catholics warned about SSPX parish

Calgary Bishop Fred Henry has warned Catholics in his diocese not
to attend a church purchased by the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X
(SSPX).

In the diocesan newsletter The Carillon, Henry pointed out SSPX had
bought the building formerly occupied by St. Michael’s Catholic Church,
which has relocated.The confusion lies in the name of the new SSPX parish: St. Dennis
Catholic Church. Henry stressed, “St. Dennis is not a Catholic church
and the fact that they are identifying themselves as a Catholic church
is problematic and confusing for many people.”“St. Dennis Church does not have canonical status within the Roman
Catholic diocese of Calgary,” Henry said, noting Catholics should not
attend this parish or receive sacraments from any SSPX priest “unless in
dire emergency or danger of death.”The bishop lays out the history of SSPX and its founder, Archbishop
Marcel Lefebvre. Since the founding of the society, there have been
illicit ordinations of priests and bishops, resulting in
excommunications.

Though the excommunications of the four bishops who
succeeded Lefebvre have since been lifted, it did not change the
juridical status of SSPX, “which presently does not enjoy any canonical
recognition by the Catholic Church, Henry said.As for Lefebvre, “He did not reject Vatican II, or even the reform of
the Mass (he voted for the Council document that called for it) but he
did reject the current rites, promulgated in 1969, though he did not
argue they were invalid,” Henry writes.

Henry noted that there were a number of seminarians and priests at
the Swiss seminary Lefebvre founded in Encône, Switzerland, who did not
wish to go into schism with the Holy See and sought another solution.

Their efforts led to the erection of the Priestly Fraternity of St.
Peter (FSSP) which have had the celebration of the Tridentine rite as
part of their charism. The bishop noted their “loyalty and
faithfulness,” as well as devotion to the Traditional Latin Mass.“On the other hand, the SSPX has gotten more strident over time,
harboring sedevacantists and others with positions more extreme than
Archbishop Lefebvre would have tolerated,” he said.For those in Calgary who wish to attend a Tridentine Mass, Henry directs them to St. Anthony’s parish, run by the FSSP.The National Post ran a Dec. 13 story on the issue, treating it as a
dispute among Catholic factions. It quotes Fr. Jurgen Wegner, SSPX’s
Canadian district superior, as being “surprised” by the bishop’s letter.

He told the Post there are about 600 SSPX members in Calgary and they
needed a larger location to worship.